Sound Unit

I haven’t uploaded all my lessons from this unit yet – I need some more time to make them pretty :)

Here’s the gist of the unit though, along with one of the lesson plans.

PRE-UNIT LESSON – Still part of the general waves unit, this lesson discusses standing waves and the Doppler Effect.

UNIT DAY 1 – Sound Intro: Includes discussion of Doppler Effect, sonic boom, sound traveling in a medium, and sound reflection (echo) if time allows.

UNIT DAY 2 – Standing Waves & Pitch

UNIT DAY 3 – Sound & Wave Review: Give students time to cover sound reflection (echo) and diffraction before reviewing homework, packets from day 2, and a gallery walk with the KWL charts from wave unit.

UNIT DAY 4 – Quiz.

Since we did a comprehensive general wave unit, transferring that information to the sound unit was straightforward and we only needed a few days. Using the last day of the wave unit to create a seamless transition to sound was extremely helpful; students felt they had something to offer since we had already discussed Doppler Effect and Sonic Boom.

Way Cool Sound Waves Demonstration

I just found this amazing video that demonstrates the sound waves associated with different frequencies:

Shoutout: Dan Russell

Dr. Dan Russell is a professor of Physics at Kettering University. His website is a great resource!

He specializes in acoustics (he’s got a degree in piano performance!) and has many activities listed. In one section he discusses the acoustics of baseball bats, while in another part, he provides useful illustrations and demonstrations for teaching acoustics. 

I am very excited to have found a solid base of resources regarding acoustics and sound!

Corks, Ears, and Eyes, Oh My!

I recently read this question, I’m curious to hear what you think!

Someone (maybe Helmholtz) suggested the following way of thinking about how our eyes and ears interpret light and sound. Imagine that you are standing at the edge of a lake. If you use your eyes, you can get an enormous amount of detailed information about the lake and its surroundings: trees on the shore, birds on the lake, cars and trucks traveling on a road nearby…. However, suppose you could only look at two corks floating side by side near you on the surface of the lake. How much could you deduce about the lake and surroundings by simply observing and interpreting the movements of the two corks? In fact, that is what your ears (and brain) do if you think of your eardrums as the corks!

Explain and evaluate the validity of the contrast between seeing and hearing described above. What characteristics and properties of light and sound does it depend upon? What is (or are) the key difference(s) between the behavior of light and sound, and between the operation of our eyes and ears, that give rise to the dramatic contrast between seeing and hearing described in the above paragraph.

Please leave your comments!